Publicly available information that anyone can lawfully obtain by request, purchase, or observation is known as which of the following?

• A. Free-source information
• B. Wide-source information
• C. Open-source information
• D. Confidential-source information

Answer: (C)

Open-source information is data that is publicly available and can be lawfully obtained by anyone through requests, purchases, or simply by observation. This encompasses government records, court filings, corporate disclosures, media reports, and material found on the open web or public social media accounts. It’s the best fit because the key idea is that the information is accessible to the general public without needing special authorization or insider access. The other terms aren’t standard descriptors for this concept, and one term implies information that is confidential or restricted, which is the opposite of publicly accessible data.